[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by issybird

I also think the author is probably right that the danger of droppage is inflated. I’d probably say that the reader is more at risk from having something dropped onto it, but a cover does protect from that also.

For me, it's not about dropping my reader (though I have dropped all of them at least once). Instead, I carry my readers in my Timbuk2 messenger bag along with whatever else I might be bringing (wallet, keys, Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator) and just don't want to scratch he screen or have something shatter the oft discussed fragile glass substrate.

I certainly think it’s true that the cover just adds weight while reading and I’d be happier without it, but it’s too much work to be constantly popping the reader into and out of the cover.

I use the slimshell covers. Whatever weight they add is pretty minimal. Especially considering what a butterfingers I have already said I am.

So if it doesn’t serve a real purpose, why bother?

See above.

Most interesting to me is the idea that covers were intended to mimic the experience of reading paper and why? I do think there’s something in that.

I think that is looking at things backwards. People buy cases for their readers to protect the screen, which we have been told repeatedly is fragile. The most popular form is the hinge on the side. Yes, I wish they instead went with a roll-up blind, where you pull down, release and the cover rolls up. But that was impractical

I think that was one reason for the popularity of Noreve covers, as one example. Hugely expensive, heavy enough to offset an inherent advantage of ereaders, and as also mentioned, entirely not fungible when someone upgraded, they were intended to invoke that sense of luxury book editions and not the straphanger who’s killing a commute. Are people over them by now?

People spend money on overly engineered nonsense all the time. Noreve's home screen doesn't show a single ereader case. It is all phones.

They make cases for Kindles. But they also make cases for phones, tablets, laptops, MP3 players, etc. Do people want their iPod case to evoke a luxury book?